It Hurts to Move!

Soreness is just one of the nuisances that you have to deal after working out. It is perfectly natural to be sore, and should be expected when you start to workout again. Overcoming the pain and continuing on with your workouts can become the hard part. Here are some tips and tricks to minimizing your soreness, both time sore and level of soreness, that will help you continue working toward that body you so desire.

#1 AdvilOk so it sounds really basic and almost like cheating the system, but Advil can alleviate some of the pain and allow you to get some of your range of motion back before you start your workout or just as you try to cope with the pain throughout the day. Not feeling the pain allows you to stretch and move in a naturally way when you are beginning your workout, and helps prevent injury.

#2 Warm up and StretchIf you are sore and are motivated enough to continue working out for the day, make sure that you warm up before you stretch. This will get your muscles moving and minimize your soreness when you start the hard part of the workout. While stretching and warming up doesn't cure soreness, it helps to prevent pulling a muscle, ligament, or spraining something. When you are sore, your muscles are tighter together, and immediately going 100% in your workout will cause you to pull a muscle and face some real pain. Warm up gradually, starting at a walk or very slow jog, and work your way faster as you progress your warm up. Personally, I prefer to stretch a little before and a little after my warm up, but be careful if you do stretch before it, since your muscles are still tight and in pain your range of motion during your stretches will be diminished greatly. As your muscles get warm, the soreness will slowly ebb away, and you will be able to complete your workout at a pace close to your normal one.

#3 Hydrate and NutritionSoreness comes from excessive stretching or working out of your muscles. When you workout, your muscles tear microscopically (microtears). Soreness results when these microtears happen at an excessive rate and your muscles do not have enough time to properly mend. Vitamin D, vitamin C, and Omega-3 are used by your muscles to rebuild themselves, so if you are sore or know that your workout might make you sore, be sure to start eating foods with higher levels of these vitamins. These foods include fish, flaxseed oil, walnuts, oranges, lemons, and egg yolks. Also you can buy supplements of all three vitamins, but getting them the natural way also promotes good, healthy eating.

#4 Don't over workout!Be careful when you are beginning intense workouts. You do not ever want to make a huge jump in your intensity of working out, since your body is not used to it. If you increase your intensity at a large rate, the microtears occurring in your muscles will be overwhelming, you will be in large amounts of pain, and this actually can do damage to your muscles rather making them grow. Soreness should only last 2 days at the longest. If it lasts longer, your intensity is too high and you are damaging your muscles. Some soreness is good, it means that you are building muscle, but too much can be detrimental.

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